EPSA 2025, Madrid
June 26, 2025
Question: Can traditional campaign tools still mobilize young voters in the digital age?Idea:
Data & Method:
Results:
Previous literature 📚
GOTV campaigns shown to be effective (Green and Gerber 2019)personal outreach (Nickerson 2006)personalization increases responsiveness (Malhotra et al. 2011)However …
digital media in modern campaignsmail campaignsGreens in the city-state of Berlinfirst-voters in the European Elections 2024 (born 2004-08)37,000 letters, randomized at the ZIP-code levelpost-election survey with random selection from both treatment & controlpersonalized letter by local candidatetext tailored to speak to issues relevant to young peoplenull effects on turnout and party vote sharemechanisms
causal forest)
less than half of treated respondents recalled receiving a letternot interested in the letterno effect of campaign letters on turnout or vote choice of first votersineffective albeit costly strategy, at least when targeting first votersOutlook 🔭
re-evaluation of field-experimental evidence from GOTV campaigns necessaryupdate strategies to reach young cohortsQuestions or feedback? Hit me up: